# Feedback Stack Audit

One page. Fill it in before you buy another feedback tool.
From saasfeedback.ai — https://saasfeedback.ai/blog/saas-feedback-tools

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## Step 1 — List what you already run

| Tool | Category | £/mo | Who owns it | Last decision it changed | Keep? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| | | | | | |

The fourth column is the whole audit. If a tool has not changed a decision in
the last quarter, you are not underusing it — you are paying for the feeling of
being data-driven.

---

## Step 2 — Map coverage against the lifecycle

Mark each stage: **C** = you collect here, **A** = you act on it, **—** = blind.

| Lifecycle stage | Coverage | Tool | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-signup (visitors who bounce) | | | |
| Signup → first value | | | |
| Active use | | | |
| Expansion / upgrade moment | | | |
| Downgrade | | | |
| Dunning / failed payment | | | |
| Cancellation | | | |
| Silent inactivity (no cancel) | | | |
| Post-churn | | | |

Almost every stack scores well on "active use" and blind on the bottom four.
That is backwards: the bottom four are where the revenue leaves.

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## Step 3 — What each category can and cannot answer

| Category | Answers | Cannot answer | Typical spend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product analytics | Where users stop | Why they stopped | Free–£££ |
| Session replay | What the screen looked like when they stopped | What they were trying to do | ££ |
| In-app microsurveys | What active users think, in the moment | Anything about people who left | £–££ |
| NPS platforms | A trended number for a board slide | Any specific, fixable cause | £–££ |
| Feedback boards | What your most engaged 2% want | What the silent majority needs | £–££ |
| Support/CRM mining | Problems bad enough to write in about | Problems people churn over silently | Included |
| Cancellation surveys | A category label from the ~15% who complete one | The event behind the label | £ |
| Conversation services | Why specific people left, in their words | Statistical significance | ££–£££ |
| User research platforms | Deep insight from recruited participants | Insight from *your* churned users specifically | £££ |

**The pattern:** everything on this list except the last two rows tells you
*what*. Only conversations tell you *why*. Most stacks are eight tools deep on
*what* and zero deep on *why*, then wonder why the roadmap is still guesswork.

---

## Step 4 — The buying order

Buy in this order. Skipping ahead wastes money.

1. **Analytics you actually read.** Free tier is fine. Without it you cannot
   segment who to talk to.
2. **A way to talk to departing users.** Manual counts. A phone and a
   spreadsheet is a legitimate answer at this stage.
3. **Triggered collection.** Automate the detection so nobody has to remember.
4. **Structured analysis.** Only once you have enough volume that reading every
   response by hand stops being possible.
5. **Everything else.** Boards, NPS, replay. These are refinements, not
   foundations, and buying them first is the most common stack mistake.

---

## Step 5 — The three questions before any purchase

1. **What decision will this change?** Name a specific decision you are currently
   making badly. If you cannot, do not buy.
2. **Who opens it on a Tuesday?** Name a person. Tools without a named daily
   reader become shelfware within two months, regardless of quality.
3. **What does it tell me about people who have already left?** For most
   categories the honest answer is "nothing", and that is the gap most stacks
   have.

---

## Consolidation prompts

- Two tools collecting the same signal from the same segment → cut one.
- A tool whose output nobody has opened in 30 days → cancel it, see who notices.
- A tool that produces a number but never a verbatim → it cannot end an argument,
  so it will not change a roadmap.